We answered this question after the sale of our first house (spoiler: we bought in the bubble and sold in the recession), so now we’re back to do it again – but this time the coins stacked a bit more favorably, thanks both to selling in a slightly better market and by not sinking as much into this house’s improvements (it helped that we didn’t need expensive upgrades like a new roof and windows this time around).

We managed to sell this latest house for $23,000 more than we bought it for back in 2010. And our best estimate is that we put around $14,500 into improvements that stay with the house (i.e. not furniture or other decor that moves with us). That means we made a net gain of about $8,500. Here’s an estimated breakdown of where the money went:

*some of these prices are total costs for projects, including some items that won’t convey with the house – for example the bathroom makeover costs include art and accessories that came with us. So this isn’t a perfect tally.

But regardless of how meticulous our math is, we’re incredibly grateful that in just a few years we were able to increase the value of this house so much – especially given our experience with our first house (to which we barely boosted the sale price at all – stupid market!). But of course, we owe a 3% fee at closing to pay the buyer’s agent commission (but we would have owed twice that amount if we used a seller’s agent, so we’re thankful for that as well).

In the end, we probably broke about even on this house. House flippers we’re not. But house lovers? You betcha. The thing we’re most excited about is finally getting to roll all of the equity that we’ve built over seven years of paying the mortgage on our first two homes into this new house – nearly cutting our mortgage balance in half. Yeehaw! That was definitely worth the wait.

What about you guys? Have you added up what you’ve spent on a house and compared it to what you got back? We always hear kitchens, bathrooms, and outdoor “square footage” (decks, patios, etc) tend to up the resale value of a house. Has that rung true for you? One thing we haven’t really heard much about are built-ins, but we think they’re such a nice feature (like the built-in desk we made for the office, the ones in the dining room that we inherited, and the one that we added to the laundry room).

So built-ins will definitely be making an appearance at the new house (especially since we’re already starting to notice a lack of built-in storage here). They add a nice feeling of function + customization, and both of the built-ins that we added were under $125, so that’s definitely some nice bang for your buck!

Thanks. This is so encouraging. We recently refinanced to a 15 yr at 2.78%. And we just added hardwoods to most of the house (4k) and are starting reno on our front porch and kitchen….looks like we are headed in the right direction.
Thank you for all you do!!!

That’s amazing! We bought our condo 5 years ago just before our market really sunk. The one above us is now selling for 41% of what we paid for ours. Yup. 41%. Between what we put down, what we’ve paid in mortgage payments, and the money we’ve put in to improvements, we’ve already spent more money than that upstairs one is selling for. Such a bummer. I can’t wait to be free of condo living and have a big house for the kiddos.

We bought our house 2 years ago on a short sale and plan on selling it in 3-4 years so I’m always super careful about what I update so we make a big enough profit to really help out with house #2’s mortgage. Would I love new kitchen cabinets? Heck yes. Would it make a lick of difference in what we make back on the house? Nope. Our cabinets are in great shape, I just hate them anyway. It’s tough to find the right balance with all that stuff!

That’s really impressive! Congratulations! I think it’s really cool that you all keep track of money in vs. money out. It’s not only interesting, but also very helpful to the rest of us, too! One thing, though – I think you’ve undervalued your time by not representing it in the figures in some way. The people who purchased your homes didn’t just get the “stuff” you put into it, but also the hours! The many, many hours. That, of course, is worth it by being able to spend time in a house you truly love, but the “time is money” evaluation is always something I consider.

That’s what struck me, too, about this breakdown, Alex! Looking at all the big projects collected together, I am reminded how obtainable they actually are! @Younghouselove–I cant believe so many of the projects that made such a difference to your whole house vibe were soooo affordable! The board and batten. The crown molding. The bathroom upgrades. The patio addition. THE KITCHEN.

Thanks for allowing us to dream with some helpful perspective! I love this break down!

I should have 9 years equity in my house, but thanks to the market it’s not as much as you’d think. These days breaking even is difficult to do, so you two should be VERY proud! Obviously your (previous) home is BEAUTIFUL and it’s not a surprise that it sold in the blink of an eye! :) And I’m sure this one will end up just as stunning!

Thank you for sharing this! I love how you guys keep it real. So many design/DIY blogs make me feel completely inadequate (says the girl whose latest paint project is covered in tiny bugs from drying outside), but not YHL. You guys make good design seem attainable by showing us every little trick (and cost) along the way. THANK YOU.

I love how much you guys share with us. The people who bought that house from you are very lucky. :) And I too love the optimistic view of things. :)

I bought my house a year ago & since it was a foreclosure (a foreclosure in really good shape) it’s already worth more than I paid. But I don’t so much care about profitting off it some day as much as I actually did it for the long term equity.

Ahh, the “depression of 2008-2009″ … ugh. I bought in Jan 2008, got laid off in Nov 2008, couldn’t find work until late 2010, so we couldn’t do improvements. We’ve done some but it takes a long time to recover. I’m guessing at this point I would lose 10% – 20% of the purchase price if I sold right now. Better than the 40% loss of a few years ago. So we are just hunkering down, improving a bit (no point in over improving and adding to the loss) and hoping to break even in a year or two.

I’m impressed by the classiness with which you go about talking about money. It’s refreshing! You give enough details to get your point across, but you don’t just lay it all out there. So, thank you for that :-)

We paid way too much for our house due to first time home buyer and really wanting to be out of the apartment. But we do plan on keeping it for our forever house so all our upgrades are for us only and we aren’t worried about resale. That being said I bet we have spent more on upgrades than we would get back. It did apraise for more than we paid 4 years ago though so that is something.

I am working on built in bookcases for the playroom right now. Actually buying the kreg crown pro today!

Hey, I didn’t get this post in Feedly for some reason. I think you mentioned a few posts ago that you were having feed issues… The only reason I know I missed it is because I saw that you posted it on Facebook but it’s not in my reader. I did get the Arhaus giveaway though.

Well, we did a full bathroom makeover before selling our apartment and it might have paid off – hard to say when the market over here hasn’t gone down very much.

As for when we bought our house I think the location was the thing that made the price go up with around 30% from the original listing price. We wanted it mostly for the location and the fabulous garden…

i love your wordy posts. never stop.
ouch, i missed the bad news on the profit for your first house.
the thing is, in addition to equity for young people in a very hard time, you derived your living and invented a whole new medium from both of those houses, made a life for yourselves and baby clara. priceless.

You guys should feel great about your selling price for this house and the last house- a recession is the perfect time to move up the property ladder- if the cheaper house you’re selling lost 10% of its value but so did the more expensive house you’ve actually benefitted! A lot of people don’t think about that and are scared to sell their houses in a recession when it’s the ideal time to trade up!

Oh yes, the new house was super on sale (it sold for 50K under assessment and 100K less than a similar house up the street that had already been updated). So it really did feel like this diamond in the rough (very very rough, haha!) that we were looking for!

My husband just said that. You don’t get as much for your house, but you don’t pay as much for the new house either. Love this blog. Don’t even know how I happened on here, but I come back every day!!! Congrats on your new home. Just bought the same paint sprayer so I could paint my 90’s honey oak cabinets. Estimate for the job from outside contractor…..4K. No way. I can do it for under $500 including the cost of the sprayer. I have redone cabinets before. 43 cabinet doors and drawers. Wish us luck. You two inspire me.

That is fantastic that you were able to cut your payment so much!! Totally our goal to have no payment on our house by the time our kids get to college age. (They are 8 and 5, btw.)

We had a significant amount of equity in our last home after moving 3 times before it. Then we found out our home had defective chinese drywall. UGH!! Losing it all and taking a huge credit hit with it. (We are currently still dealing with it.) Unfortunately the builder wanted nothing to do with it and the chance we would win a lawsuit are slim to none. All our equity lost. :-( But we bought a new home just as the market started to come back here in FL and we are already up aprox $35k based upon the new ones selling in our neighborhood. Fingers crossed the markets keeps up for a bit here so we can gain back some of the equity lost.

i wanted to add, if the value of your DIY frugality has ever been in question, this post puts paid to it. to have paid others to do the work on house #2 would have eliminated your profit, as it did in house #1.

Oh yeah, we think we could have easily spent 30K to outsource the deck, patio, and kitchen reno alone (maybe even more) so sweat equity definitely saved us. And the fact that we truly DIY and started this whole thing as a hobby is the icing on the cake. Getting to do what you love everyday = priceless.

Thanks for sharing! I find these posts quite interesting.
When we bought our house, we renovated the kitchen immediately and then we have done landscaping as well. I hope to eventually be able to do the bathrooms too. We know that we have put more money than what we will get in return if we eventually sell, but I feel we also can’t put a value on comfort. I can’t imagine if we had kept the kitchen the way it was!
We also refinanced a couple years back, but we decided to keep paying the same mortgage amount we were before, so we have actually knocked off 8 years from our mortgage by doing so!

Dang, should have broken that out! The border tile, toilet, and light fixture are factored into “miscellaneous” since we did that over time in a few phases, so I didn’t have one final rundown post to link to (which is probably why I didn’t think to make that a bullet on its own).

thanks for the real-life “slow and steady wins the race and we’re not ashamed to admit it” attitude. when you read about other people who seem to have miraculous success, it seems so out of reach. but when I read your story, it’s basically, “we work our butts off, and eventually it all pans out.” i like that. it’s the real American dream–aided by the power of the internet–as opposed to overnight internet success. it’s one reason why i’m still reading y’all’s blog 5 year later :-) I’ve been a daily reader for years, and I’ve enjoyed each step that you’ve taken as you’ve made your dream come alive, including John quitting his job, and your pregnancy announcement, and dozens of other “moments” that were small steps, that have taken you far. i’m proud of you guys, and it inspires me to just keep grinding away, knowing that it does pay off.

About

Hey, we're Sherry & John. This is where we chronicled 7 years of our lives as we fixed up 3 homes, had 2 children, became accidental authors and product designers, and shared our adventures (and misadventures) with the world. Now it's a time capsule of sorts, complete with nearly 3,000 posts, projects, and updates.